BEIJING — Yu Jie has picked a fight with the Communist Party of China, and if state security forces haul him away in the dark of night, there will be no one to stop them. It’s a risk Yu took knowingly when he wrote a book published this month that slammed the country’s prime minister as an “actor” shilling for an authoritarian government.

His challenge is a rarity in a nation noted for its rough treatment of dissidents, and is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Yu, an unassuming author who looks like a Beijing office worker, has no prominent family or professional connections in China to bail him out of prison.

Via McClatchy’s excellent Tom Lasseter

China’s leaders are petty-minded, paranoid, intolerant, and filled with spiteful punitive intent when challenged. Such is the courage required of the dissenting voice in the Middle Kingdom.

Yu Jie, take a bow. China needs many more as brave as you.

I’m not sure how the rest of the world didn’t see this coming:

The United States and Europe have been remarkably insouciant about supplies of rare earth minerals so crucial to frontier technologies, from hybrid engines to mobile phones, superconductors, radar and smart bombs.

Lack of strategic planning by the West has allowed China to acquire a world monopoly on this family of seventeen metals. Assumptions that Beijing would never risk its reputation as a global team player by abruptly strangling supply have proved naive.

Well, they know now. Read more of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s article to understand how China has strategised to achieve this worrying outcome and what the potential ramifications might be.

How much longer is the world going to remain in a state of denial about China’s intentions to bend everyone else to their will? Under the present regime China is neither a fair trade, team, or morally observant player on the world stage. It really is time for people to wake up to the new reality.

If Evans-Pritchard’s assessment is accurate – and there’s no reason to suppose otherwise – the US are 15 years away from recovering the rare-earth supply chain they once had, the time for sober realisation is NOW.

Update

Anyone of the misguided opinion that China will give ground on this issue should take a closer look at today’s offering from The China Economic Review on Chinese negotiating style:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton steps up and unlocks the mystery of negotiating with the Chinese – they only compromise with enemies who scare them. Old hands know that the “middle” in Middle Kingdom refers to China’s place of honor just below Heaven but still far above the barbarian horde. That’s why traditional wisdom on negotiating with a Chinese counter-party by giving face and preserving harmony is a loser strategy – you end up bargaining for the best terms of your own submission.

Business leaders can learn a great deal from two approaches to Chinese negotiation that the US has tried out in the last 18 months. The Obama administration started with the same game-plan that many ambitious CEOs attempt when they are still China novices. They gave face, preserved harmony and built close personal relationships by offering concessions. Then they sat back, waiting for the Chinese side to reciprocate. It’s been a long, long wait. Just ask Tim Geithner – he traded his manhood away to Hu Jintao for a 0.7% appreciation in the RMB-USD exchange rate and more trash-talk about the state of the US economy.

I’m staggered at the naivety of successive world leaders in dealing with the Chinese government. I can forgive a few early stumbles, but how difficult is it to find smart individuals who understand Chinese strategic thinking?

China currently has planet by the bollocks on rare earth metals – and they’re not about to let go. Find an alternative, and find it fast. Or prepare to play serious hardball.
Update

China rare earth miners to set unified prices http://ow.ly/2nl40

Sounds like a cartel to me. It’s the beginning…

Hats off to SPIEGEL ONLINE for once again telling like it is as successive governments cower in denial or buckle under the threat of economic reprisals from Beijing:

It is, however, true that the Chinese are in the process of conquering the world. They are doing this very successfully by pursuing an aggressive trade policy toward the West, granting low-interest loans to African and Latin American countries, applying diplomatic pressure to their partners, pursuing a campaign bordering on cultural imperialism to oppose the human rights we perceive to be universal, and providing the largest contingent of soldiers for United Nations peacekeeping missions of all Security Council members. In other words, they are doing it with soft power instead of hard power.

And, as I’ve been arguing for some time, when Beijing doesn’t get its way we’re treated to adolescent tantrum, petulent retribution, and a total disregard for the international guidelines, organisations, or protocols that stand in its way:

Beijing is indeed waging a war on all continents, but not in the classical sense. Whether the methods it uses consistently qualify as “peaceful” is another matter. For example, the Chinese apply international agreements as they see fit, and when the rules get in their way, they “creatively” circumvent them or rewrite them with the help of compliant allies.

Further, as noted at the start, the level of kowtowing to Beijing’s aggressive exploits around the globe is cringeworthy:

But why are politicians in Washington, Paris and London taking all of this lying down, kowtowing to the Chinese instead of criticizing them? Does capturing — admittedly lucrative — markets in East Asia and trying to impress the Chinese really help their cause?

The Communist Party leaders manipulate their currency to keep the prices of their exports artificially low. The fact that they recently allowed their currency, the renminbi, to appreciate slightly is evidence more of their knack for public relations than of a real change of heart. They are known for using every trick in the book when buying commodities or signing pipeline deals, with participants talking of aggressive and pushy tactics. Meanwhile, these free-market privateers unscrupulously restrict access to their own natural resources. They denounce protectionism, and yet they are more protectionist than most fellow players in the great game of globalization.

Want more? Try this dose of China reality:

Beijing recently imposed strict export quotas on rare earths, resources that are indispensable in high technology, where they are essential to the operation of hybrid vehicles, high-performance magnets and computer hard drives. Some 95 percent of metals such as lanthanum, neodymium and promethium are mined in the People’s Republic, giving Beijing a virtual monopoly on these resources. It clearly has no intention of exporting these metals without demanding substantially higher export tariffs. In fact, China apparently wants to prohibit exports of some rare earths completely, starting in 2015. Concerned observers in Japan have described the valuable resources are a “21st-century economic weapon.” The Chinese have dismissed protests from Washington and Brussels with the audacious claim that World Trade Organization (WTO) rules allow a country to protect its own natural resources.

And if that’s not enough to wake you up:

China, a WTO member itself, is now playing a cat-and-mouse game with the organization. Despite several warnings, Beijing still has not signed the Agreement on Government Procurement, and it continues to strongly favor domestic suppliers over their foreign competitors in government purchasing. To secure a government contract in China, an international company has to reveal sensitive data as part of impenetrable licensing procedures and even agree to transfer its technology to the Chinese — often relinquishing its patent rights in the process.

China, for its part, is waging a vehement campaign in the WTO to be granted the privileged status of a “market economy.” If it succeeds, it will be largely spared inconvenient anti-dumping procedures in the future. But do China’s Communist Party leaders seriously believe that the rest of the world will actually reward them for their dubious trading practices?

The answer is yes, and they have good reason to be optimistic. When it comes to diplomacy, Beijing knows how to win. Whether it’s at the WTO, the United Nations or other international organizations, China is in the process of outmaneuvering the West everywhere.

And how are they doing this? SPIEGEL explain all here. A must read for anyone who is misguided enough to believe that China’s influence is either benign or beneficial to the world.

I make no apologies for reproducing so much of this article here; these are truths that should be burned into the hearts and minds of all those that give a damn about the future of the planet,  whatever their nationality or ethnicity.

Reason #1

They gave the bomb to Pakistan, and then cheered as Iran and the DPRK enriched away while embroiling the US in a strategic tarpit. And now they’re turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the nuclear ambitions of their military dictator buddies Burma.

Real responsible, boys.

Update

I’ve decided to head in another blogging direction, so just for the record the other current and pending areas of globally irresponsible behaviour emanating from Beijing are as follows:

#2 Claims to the Arctic (unbelievable, but true)

#3 Antarctic treaty and exploration (they’ll pass on any accord and start digging)

#4 South China Sea disputed territories/claims (question of time before they occupy a disputed island)

#5 Exhaustive mass fishing of southern hemisphere oceans (lots of mouths to feed and they don’t give a crap about the damage to the ecosystem)

#6 Monopolising rare metals (thereby holding a gun to the world’s head – a strategy already well underway)

#7 Corruption of foreign politicians in return for CCP-friendly policies/access to resources (this is the latest example, and I see their fingerprints all over Rudd’s demise in Australia)

#8 Malevolent use of cyber capabilities to track, steal, punish, and control (this isn’t alarmist – it’s already happening)

#9 Building and controlling of ports in Asia, Africa, and Europe (Again, already happening and a conflict-generator in the making.)

#10 Ongoing efforts to undermine the efforts of other nations through misuse of growing influence at the table of various world bodies/conferences (e.g. UN, WTO, G20). This was a classic example.

Many more images from today’s source here:

http://freedom-democracy.spaces.live.com/blog/

Update

Hong Kong never lets the Chinese people down:

From last night’s vigil … 100,000 + again! Total Respect.